The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-06-22

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brood" There has been no such
brood bred since. No preteuder
could have escaped these men.
No meIe lou. could in their pres.
ence assume the authorship OF
masterpieces that were "the talk Of the
town" who's first produced, aud cha!-
lenged the criticism Of poets and
scholars, ns we'll ss the workers upon
the stage, who always willingly paid
homsge TO their "swest WILL" Hscould
not, even though his speech in his
looser hours bore evidence Of ripeDess
and ability, he could not have kept so
pregnant q secret from them. All
Shskespearean scholars, those most in
timste with his work, those who have
fingered ON his lines and extricstsd
mis- meaning from obscure aud ohscur-
log passages, no one Of these has ever
doubted his work or LOOKED beyond
him for the authorship OF one of his
plays. Milton, who was OF later age,
q widely differing era from that Of
Shakespeare, wrote OF him ia 1890:
What needs.my Shakespeare, fer his hOAOrsd
The labor Of an age in piled stonesf
Or that his hAllow'd rsliaues should be hid
Under starry-poin ting pyramidf
| Dear son Of memory, great heir OF lame,
What need 81 thou such weak vitness Of thy
manner
Thou, in our wonder and astonishment,
Hast built myself livelong monument.
This from the Puritan poet who, in
paradise Lost" built his livelong
monument, Dryden, poet and dram.
atist, acknowledging his obligation to
Sir William Ddvenant for the meter
OF his "Annus Mirabilis," says he also
owed that poet gratitude fer "his first
admir- alton of the genius Of Shake.
spesre," Of whom he not always
spoke and wrote with reverend re-.
spect. ColeIidge, nearer to cur own
time, speaks Ct The great poet as sour
nyrlad'mlndsd Shakespeare" Schle-
gel, the great German critic whose
measure OF Shakespeare never can 90
supelceded, had no doubt that his was
tbs mind whence Issued tho exquisite
fancies OF the "Midsummer Nights
Dream" the profound philosophy Of
Hamlet, the tragedy Of Macbeth with
Its contrasts OF character aud the
mockery and cynicism Of Richard the
III. For centuries macy OF the most
devoted scholars in our tlngus have
always with love and reverence. This
volumes dsvut d to him are counted
by the thousand, and the mora init
mate with his works the more loyal to
his memory ara the authors. A critic
OF the Nation reviewing thu English
DrsmstisIs," edited by A. H.
Bullion, says: "Most Of these
writers are unknown altogether,
even by name, except TO o.
few, In the world from which they
went out; and, indeed, only good
scholars Ia our L gish easily recall
bare names Of any Of them, with moth
ing else. There ara no lovely airy
Visions If pure anu tender, or holy
heroic, noble women, wives, or moth
ers, Of thsir imagining; nor are there
any such visions OF higher manic cd,
aud better, floating or fixed in our
memories, or made into q pat OF our
life and experience. There are few
dear, few we'll remembered lines or
words Of theirs in common use or
trea' ured with the riches of our
tongue; and the few that have come
down to us have cone from scarcely
one or two among these writers
Something Of Marlows, had Shakes.
peare never quoted from him, would
not have been forgotten; something
or other OF Ben Jonson is known, for
| It's own sake, or for its authors, or
| for some one else's sake; but, of the
rest, Though we may reheaIsa list OF
| them, how manv can recall a charac-
ter from play? q scene2 word
Scholars In English may speak Of
| them by their several names, and of
their writings Beverally; but how few
these scholars are and this, although
| the men wrote in our own every day
tongue, and sometimes wrote strongly,
sometimes tenderly, sometimes grace
fully and with beauty, often moving
to laughter, sometimes to good deeds.
The men, moreover, made q consider
able part of the literature Of their
times, and furnished entertainment
for lettered and unletteled minds and
hesrtp, old and young, and helped t.
form tnem. One mans works, Of all
that were written by them all, grow
better known and come more into tho
thought and life of reading and think.
ing people as time goes on; bat the
fact that shakespeare lived and wrote
pays and acted a. the same Tina with
these play writers aud actors does not
hello the others. 1t only makes COM
p2Iison OF him with them the easier,
and the more to their loss." They all
stood much upon one iooting--they
with him and he with them-until he
had risen in mems thought above the
the rest. Aiterward they were all
hupelessly below him. The higher he
has risen the more he has drawn our
eyes away from them. A few hundred
copies of their works are sent forth
from time to time by the prees, but q
few hundred are enough for all the
readers. To most eyes the forgetful.
ness is very thick which stands about
and over the many that are gone, and
hides them ALL" They were wanting
in the mysterious gift that made
Shakespeare the poet for all time. His
fancy rosmed the world, theirs was
restricted. Their vocabulsries were
limited, his was the richest ever
known. The Imperial English Diction-
airy, now being published by the Uni.
versity OF Oxford, iB to contain 26C,000
words. Prof. Max Mueller, the father
of the science OF language, says that
everyone of these words admits of at |
least ten changes by means OF deClen-
sions, conjugations, or degrees Of COM
pariRon," which gives us 100000
English words, as Mueller says, "ev-
ery0ne bright star OF human
thought" And Of this vast body OF
stars the great phiologist says he
doubts whether many people have |
ever used more than 2764 or twice The
number OF the visible stars OF the
fifth magnitude. This will enable you
to ,measureably comprehend the gu
preme mastery OF Shakespeare, who,
it is estim ated, used from $500 to 49,
200 words. What harvest Of intel
lectual strength In that mind, ready |
for use upon any and every sub
ject, and to paint the secrets
OF nature as they have never been |
painted by any other man. All the |
world was to him q stage, "and the |
men and women merely players"